Duck Breast Strips with Masala

This is a dish from German 1 Michelin  star Chef Björn Freitag.

Very easy to prepare and you can cook the duck breast in the way you like. Rare, medium or well done. It stays juicy, no matter which cooking time you choose.

A bought a free range duck breast from a producer near by.  If you have the chance to support local farmers, that is a great way to get organic food.

The duck breast has a lot of fat in the skin. For this revipe I needed just the meat, not the skin.
Do not throw the skin away. When you are done with the meal, just cut up the skin into small strips and place it a cold pan without any other fat. Heat it up and let the fat get out.  When the duck skin is crispy, you can use it on an other day. Sprinkle on some salad.
Store the oil in a small jar for further use.

Cut the breast into 1 inch strips. Season them with salt and pepper.
Mix cornstarch with 2 tsp of grilled Masala or any other curry powder.
Turn the strips in the flour mix.

Use clarified butter and bake the strips.  If you like them more done, keep them in the pan a while longer.

Eggplant Burger

Something fast  and vegetarian to eat during the work from home.

I made a quick stop at the local bakery and grabbed ond of their new creations. A huge bun with a top knot made from cheese mixed with poppy seeds. It tastes great on its own, but as a bun for a simple veggie burger even better.

One small eggplant and one large spring onion are the veggies instead of meat on this burger. I wanted a bit of BBQ aroma. The eggplant takes on the flavours very well. They are like a blank canvas. I rubbed them with the Mauritius spice blend and sprinkled some oil on top.

I have a cast iron griddle pan and the slices of eggplant took on a nice grill mark. The 10 cm stalk cuts of spring onion went in now.
They take a longer time to get soft, I added a bit of balsamic vinegar to them after I turned them the second time. That gave a great color. But they were still not done.
A good splash of white wine did the trick then. I let them steam with the wine for a couple more minutes.

Brush both sides of the bun with pesto and add Kewpie or any other mayo.
Now build your burger with both veggies.


A cheese and poppy seed bun
3 tbsp 7 green herb pesto
2 tbsp kewpie mayo
1 large spring onion
1 small eggplant
Grilled Masala
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
White wine

This combination is so tasty, but a real mess to eat. The hot eggplant melts the mayo and the pesto. Have enough napkins on hand.

Radish Buttermilk Soup

Do you love pink? Do you love cold soups in Summer ? This is the recipe for you.

The stovetop keeps cool and you only need a blender. It is a bit like a smoothie, but has a bit more texture. That makes it into a soup to eat with a spoon.

There are so many cold soups out there. I was hooked on the pretty color when I saw the recipe on the ALDI site. A pure vegetarian dish to enjoy.

recipe for 2:
350 g red radishes
400 g buttermilk
100 g creme fraiche
juice of 1/2 lemon
zest of whole lemon
2 sprigs of mint
3 sprigs of parsley
1 sprig of lemon balm
2 tsp Agave syrup
1 tsp whole grain mustard
salt and pepper
2 tsp olive oil

Clean the radishes, save 3 for garnish and chop the others into 4 quarters. Put them in the blender together with the buttermilk.
Give them a good blend, but no too fine.
Add creme fraiche, lemon juice and bit of zest, most of the herbs, the syrup and mustard and season with salt and pepper.
Blend again and pour into soup bowls.
Finely slice the radishes and put them on top together with some ripped parsley and mint leaves.
Drizzle some olive oil over the soup and the rest of the lemon zest.

Quinoa with black beans - vegan

A bit of vegan food is good once in a while. A had some black beans in a small jar and I needed a recipe.

My BFF gets me lots of newspaper scraps with recipes on. Sometimes magazine issues from health food stores. I sift through them and a recipe catches my eye. Quinoa is one of the staple grains sitting in my cupboard. Not so often used. But it comes in handy when I have to bulk out a dish. It is great in salads too. Very bland and it does not stand out in any kind of recipe.

recipe for 2:
100 g white quinoa
1 small jar of black beans
1 lime juice and zest
1 spring onion
1 shallot
6 cherry tomates or 3 small ones
Ancho chili powder
Pul  Biber
salt and pepper
parsley
coriander
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp alba oil

Wash the quinoa in a fine colander and cook it in salted water for 10 min on low heat. Drain.
In a pan heat up the oils and add both onions to it. Cook until soft. Add the spices.
Now in with the halved cherry tomatoes, give it a couple of minutes.

Add zest and juice of the lime.
Now in with the washed beans.
Finish with fresh chopped parsley and coriander.

Red Velvet Coffee

Coffee creations are the hype for a couple of years now. We all stumbled upon the South Korean Dalgona coffee magic.

I found something different in a small leaflet that is sponsored by ALDI.
4 different coffees made 2 pages there. One example was the red velvet coffee.

I was out Saturday to get my groceries. I needed red beet juice. Usually packed in 500 ml tetra packs. But not available. Since practicing social distancing, I did not drive to an other supermarket. I bought deep red grape juice instead.

If you are going to replicate the recipe, hunt down red beet juice. It is known for its good coloring features. My grape juice was less strong giving up color.

Recipe for one 250 ml glass:

Hot strong black coffee.
100 ml hot milk
2 tbsp red beet juice
1 tbsp instant chocolate powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Pinch of cinnamon

Foam up the hot milk.
Choose a nice glass and mix beet juice, choc and vanilla sugar together in it.
Pour the hot coffee over the mix and stir well.
Add the milk and foam.
Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top.

Tex-Mex Strudel with Chicken

Today is Cinco de Mayo.A Mexican holiday celebrating a battle at Pueblo in 1862. It is celebrated on both sides if the boarder. While I was on vacation in Texas a couple of years ago, we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Corpus Christi. It was the 5th of May. It was a special experiance. Since that evening, Cinco de Mayo gets celebrated at home. If that date does not go over unnoticed.

I love Mexican food but eat if not very often. We have 3 Mexican restaurants in town, but the quality of the food is not to my liking. It is more German-Mexican and all kinds of Natchos are not my first choice of food when I go to a restaurant.

Recipe:
Filo or Strudel dough ready made
3 tbsp butter melted
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
1/2 piece of chicken breast
2 slices of smoked bacon
2 spring onions
5 cloves of garlic
1 small can of sweet corn
100 g black beans from a jar
1 red bell pepper
1 medium courgette
1 green chili
1 tsp cumin
200 g cherry tomatoes
Paprika powder
chili powder
chives
parsley ( use coriander if you have any)
salt and pepper
oil

Chop onion and garlic and cut bacon and chicken into strips. In a medium pan heat up the oil and start with the chicken and bacon, later add the onions and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, chili and cumin.

Chop pepper, courgette and tomatoes in fine cubes and add that. It will take about 8 min to soften. Now in with the sweet corn and the beans. When it is done, add parsley and chives. Cool down a bit.

Heat up the oven to 210 C
Take 3 sheets out of the pastry case, each one needs a brush with softened butter. Stack them on top of each other and make a line in the middle with breadcrumbs.

Put it on a baking sheet and place it into the oven for 30 min.

Spreas the mix in the middle of the pastry sheets and start to roll. Brush the outside with butter.

When it comes out of the oven, brush it again with a little butter and wait until it is sitting outside for 15 min, then cut it up and serve it.

Dalgona Matcha Latte

My new favourite kind of Matcha drink for the coming summer.

I made the Dalgona Coffee two weeks ago and was a bit disapointed. It had the taste of the shop bought Instant Iced coffee from Krügers. That is available is here for more than 15 years.
When I drink the freeze dried Nescafe coffee, I get heartburn. The same problem occured when I had the Dalgona Coffee.

I was curious if I had the that problem after drinking the Dalgona Matcha.  No!

350 ml whole ice cold milk
1 tbsp Matcha powder
2 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp whipping cream

Put Matcha, sugar and cream in a high blender and beat it until creamy. Do start slow, otherwise there will be a Matcha dust cloud.